Media streaming is becoming an increasingly popular way of delivering television, movies and other media content to viewers. Media streams are typically point-to-point transmissions of digitized content that can be sent over the Internet or a similar network. Media streaming is often used to facilitate video on demand (VOD), remote storage digital video recorder (RSDVR), placeshifted media viewing and/or any number of other convenient services. Generally, the media stream is played back for the viewer in real time as the stream continues to be delivered to the player.
Media streaming is often favored over other types of content delivery because of its versatility. Unlike traditional television broadcasts, for example, media streams can often be sent to many different types of devices such as mobile phones, set top boxes and other television receivers, personal computers, tablet computers, video game players and the like. Streaming media often allows media content to be delivered at any time and to any place that network connectivity is available, thereby allowing a high level of flexibility.
The increased flexibility, however, can create challenges in controlling the distribution of media content while protecting the intellectual property rights of media content owners. Often, media content owners are reluctant to allow streaming of their valuable media content unless they can be assured that the streamed content will not be improperly duplicated or used for other undesired purposes. This can be a particular challenge if viewers are allowed to receive multiple simultaneous streams. While some video streaming services simply limit each user to a single stream at any particular time, this restriction is becoming unduly burdensome, especially as mobile phones, tablet computers and other devices that are capable of media playback become more widespread.
It is therefore desirable to build systems, devices and techniques for determining whether a user device is eligible to receive a media stream, particularly if the same user is currently receiving a different media stream using a different device. These and other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background section.